French spies operating in Sirte, Gaddafi's last refuge, were able to set a trap for the Libyan dictator after obtaining his satellite telephone number from the Syrian government, they said.

In what would amount to an extraordinary betrayal of one Middle East strongman by another, President Bashar al-Assad sold out his fellow tyrant in an act of self-preservation, a former senior intelligence official in Tripoli told the Daily Telegraph.

With international attention switching from Libya to the mounting horrors in Syria, Mr Assad offered Paris the telephone number in exchange for an easing of French pressure on Damascus, according to Rami El Obeidi.

"In exchange for this information, Assad had obtained a promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime – which is what happened," Mr El Obeidi said.

_________________"Defeat is a state of mind. No one is ever defeated, until defeat has been accepted as a reality." -- Bruce Lee

Well, I of course know nothing about the level of implication of the DGSE in Gaddafi's end but for sure :

1/ Whoever knows the billing systems and or the technology of mobile networks, does not need to rely on the devil's good will to get the list of whatever VIP's phone numbers.
2/ "Assad had obtained a promise of a grace period from the French and less political pressure on the regime" – which is what happened"
There is a public access on several documents which show that it did not happen. The political pressure on the Syrian's regime did not lessen.
(In addition to this, I think that Assad made obvious that he does not care a damn about any political pressure.)
3/ It also might be interesting to consider Mr El Obeidi's former position, to compare it with his current position.
One could then understand that Mr El Obeidi is in a dramatic need to exist.

Dramatic needs to exist often lead to more or less unrealistic ? surrealistic ? contributions. Haven't we already seen this in OTW ? _________________